Ireland women's basketball team refuse to shake hands with Israel

It's known that they are quite anti-semitic

I love it when isrealis reveal that they can't differentiate between their nationality and the religion

Great display of standing up against false "anti-semitic" claims, when criticizing the politics of Israel.

The article unfortunately does not state who won...does anyone know? The BBC basketball section obviously doesn't, at least I couldn't find it there.

Edit: The article actually states the result. Israel won 87-57. :/

It is inerrant to sport to be political. People are competing in teams based on political borders. Issues won't disappear because it's sport. It's socially here and teams take these with them.

We have to show that we're better than them and win.

I will edit comment, because it was poor taste and inappropriate, thus the responses

But still, this sounds at least the way Soviet sports teams were supposed to always be the best to prove a point of Soviets being best in everything. That's not how things work, you don't prove your point by beating someone, in sport or otherwise.

how am I supposed to understand this, what is the context here?

An Israeli player said "It's known that they are quite anti-semitic" and the entire irish team felt so offended by that that they decided not to shake the hands of the israeli team? To show them how unfounded the allegations are?

What are the details here? the article doesn't really say much

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Ireland women's basketball team refused to shake hands with Israel before their EuroBasket 2025 qualifier in Riga.

Basketball Ireland said the comments were "inflammatory and wholly inaccurate".Ireland players also lined up for their anthem beside the team's bench rather than the centre of the court before the game, which Israel won 87-57.

The match, which was moved to Riga because of the ongoing war in Gaza, went ahead despite Basketball Ireland facing pressure to boycott the fixture.

Basketball Ireland's statement prior to the start of the game read: "Basketball Ireland informed Fiba Europe yesterday that as a direct result of recent comments made by Israeli players and coaching staff - including inflammatory and wholly inaccurate accusations of anti-Semitism, published on official Israeli Federation channels - that our players will not be partaking in traditional pre-match arrangements with our upcoming opponents.

"This includes exchanging of gifts, formal handshakes before or after the game, while our players will line up for the Irish national anthem by our bench rather than centre court.

"In an interview on the Israeli Basketball Association's website, United States-based student Saar said: "It's known that they are quite anti-semitic and it's no secret, and maybe that's why a strong game is expected.

The original article contains 420 words, the summary contains 204 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Religious people are mentally ill and should be treated as such.

No, its the irish team refusing to shake the hand of the israely team, not the whole country, this headline is misleading. Also, wtf is the basketball team of israel supposed to do if their political leaders go ham? i dont get it.

Permanently Deleted